Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series an
investigation of opacity luck uncertainty probability human error risk and
decision-making in a world we don't understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by
Randomness The Black Swan Skin in the Game and The Bed of Procrustes. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time reveals
how to thrive in an uncertain world. Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress
and tension and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them many things in
life benefit from stress disorder volatility and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and
calls antifragile is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order
to survive and flourish. In The Black Swan Taleb showed us that highly improbable and
unpredictable events underlie almost everything about our world. In Antifragile Taleb stands
uncertainty on its head making it desirable even necessary and proposes that things be built
in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust. The resilient
resists shocks and stays the same the antifragile gets better and better. Furthermore the
antifragile is immune to prediction errors and protected from adverse events. Why is the
city-state better than the nation-state why is debt bad for you and why is what we call
efficient not efficient at all? Why do government responses and social policies protect the
strong and hurt the weak? Why should you write your resignation letter before even starting on
the job? How did the sinking of the Titanic save lives? The book spans innovation by trial and
error life decisions politics urban planning war personal finance economic systems and
medicine. And throughout in addition to the street wisdom of Fat Tony of Brooklyn the voices
and recipes of ancient wisdom from Roman Greek Semitic and medieval sources are loud and
clear. Antifragile is a blueprint for living in a Black Swan world. Erudite witty and
iconoclastic Taleb's message is revolutionary: The antifragile and only the antifragile will
make it. Praise for Antifragile Ambitious and thought-provoking . . . highly entertaining.-The
Economist A bold book explaining how and why we should embrace uncertainty randomness and
error . . . It may just change our lives.-Newsweek
